Finally!! The Barcelona Tactic :D

Before I start, I want to say that I do not know how to upload screenshots. So if someone helps me I promise you to share all relevant screenshots of what I consider an incredible tactic.

I developed an obsession to play like Barce ever since that 5-0 game. I started reading, found a lot of pessimism regarding ever reaching those heights. But It inspired me on rather than discouraging me. There are two major differences between the 5-0 Barce and the 08 Barce:

1) Interchanging forwards; In the game against Real Madrid Messi played in the center in the first half and on the right in the second one. He didn't interchange position with any of his peers DURING any half of them.

2) Barcelona did not press as insanely as they are used to; Zonal Marking described there pressing in that game as "subdued" as a matter of fact".

So I started translating Jonathan Wilson's Barcelona W-W formation to the match engine.

I started a game with Liverpool and the formation was OK. I won seven out of 12 games, and drew another three (lost 2). But when you bear in mind that 4 of the 7 wins came in the Europa League, the formation loses its appeal.

The two games I lost were on the bounce, to Man u (a) 0-4 and Tottenham (h) 1-4. Those two games convinced me that the formation I played (even though had the basis for what I wanted to achieve)

So I over-hauled my tactic completely until I produced this:

http://www.filefront.com/17639383/barce (Liverpool, Feb 2011).tac

http://www.easy-share.com/1913435523/barce%20(Liverpool,%20Feb%202011).tac

I started piling up wins but I only ended up 2nd in the League (the tactic came a bit too late), I played 23 games in the new season and I'm 1st, 4 points ahead of Chelsea. Ever since the new season I've gone 57-12-13. In the league I am 17-5-1. 51f 11a

While I will agree with a few who will say that this is not exactly Barce's style, I'd say it is about 85% of how they play offensively, defensively and especially in the few counter attacking moments. But statistically it is 100% Barce all my games (especially the 2nd half of the 2nd season) have not dropped below 60% and my passing accuracy never got below 81% and clear cut chances of 3. My 3 forwards are always in th top 4 tacklers/game. So my pressing (statistically at least)

While I want to share all the things I used to work on the tactics, they are too many and it will be extremely difficult to articulate in one peace. So instead I'd like to try the game for 5 games share your results and start tweaking or sharing notes you think can get us closer to the Barce tactic in the 5-0 game. However I'll share the two aspects which make this tactic tick.

Passing

Not the attribute, but the statistic. I thought that rather than worrying about possession and shots on target. I should focus on the number of passes I make in a game. The more passes I make, the more time I'll have the ball (possession), the more the time to create chances and the less risk of conceding (Barcelona's mantra). So I started calculating how many passes I made/half (around 110) then started tweaking personal instruction and some team instructions to improve it. I raised it to around 202 passes/half. This falls short of Barce's average of 250. And I'd like people to help me out with this aspect, have some one reached 500 or 700 passes/game? What did you do?

The fall of the 4-man defense

No 4-man defense can stand in the way of this tactic. This is because unlike the popular use of two wingers and a striker in the 3-man forward line, I use 3 strikers who all run the channels (the area between two CBs or a CB and the FB). This creates a confusion as to which defender should be marking whom. Add to that the fact that the FC drops looking for space and you leave the CBs in a dilemma..leave their place and leave space to be exploited by the other two Fws (if CBR is drawn out, FCL cuts inside to occupy the space, he receives the pass and is immediately through on goal? or stay in your place and risk having the FC run at you with pace?

And since all FW move in channels, they end up swapping places a lot of the time, making the link up play between them fantstic to watch at times (again would like to post videos if someone would tell me how).

So try my tactic and lets discuss how to improve it.

GK (Valdes role)

RB (Alves role)

RCB (Puyol role)

LCB (Pique role)

MC (Sergio role)

MCR (Xavi role)

MCL (Iniesta role)

FC (Messi role)

FCR (Pedro role)

FCL (Villa role)

Set your play-maker to the player in the Iniesta role even if you have doubts on his play-making ability, trust me on that.

Just use alt+F9.. it saves an image file in My Documents\Sports Interactive\......\screenshots

Posting Images. If you have a large image to post can you either crop the image or use www.imageshack.us to upload your image. This will then give you the option of inserting a thumbnail image which also acts as a link to your full-sized image. Please use this facility. Just copy and paste the link as highlighted in the screenshot below:

http://img132.exs.cx/img132/1883/imageshack7df.th.jpg

In order to achieve the efficiency Barca did in that game you basically need the opponent to completely fall apart and play as horrifically bad as Real did. It takes two to tango, personaly I think you'd be better off trying to recreate the style Barca play in most of their games - but best of luck with this nevertheless.

I would like to recreate the look on Mourinho's face after that 5-0 result

very good tactic actually looks like miracle

Downloaded the tactic now and i'll try it over a ten game period as it seems to me five games is just too low. I'll start with Bayern and try it with them. When i'm done i'll post back here.

I would like to recreate the look on Mourinho's face after that 5-0 result

that would be good hahaha

I would like to recreate the look on Mourinho's face after that 5-0 result

That look was as priceless as Barca's display of brilliance. It is very likely that we will see it again in April of next year.

At least they didn't have to turn the sprinklers on this time.

It is very likely that we will see it again in April of next year.

Keep dreaming.

I disagree, Lionel Messi would often switch with Henry and Eto'o back in 2008/09, even in the Rijkaard era position switching was frequent, there's a brilliant article explaining why Eto'o and Messi switched positions when neither (at the time, 2008) were fully comfortable in the switched positions, from J. Wilson, it explained the idea of a false nine and how it disrupted the marking and positioning of the other team.

As for the second point, through-out last season Barcelona started experimenting with a 4-2-4 esque formation that they used for pressing, they way they pressed Sevilla (just last month) in the first 40 minutes was unbelievable, Barcelona's "pressing" is dependant on the team they are playing and how good the team is.

To make around 500-700 passes for each game, the players need to be close to each other, as old Football Manager speak would put it, it is essentially "role theory", although this is hard to implement as it takes time to find the perfect positions, sliders, etc, for each team, with different pitch sizes, different morale, what works for one team may not work for another, thus negating the idea of a "Barcelona tactic".

You've missed out the LB in your positions, there are only 10 players.

I like the idea and thought you've had, I've had matches where I've had around 75% - 78% possession and I've had several matches against small teams where the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Nasri (I use Arsenal in this Barcelona-experiment) have hit 80+ passes in a match, but against the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, teams in the Champions League, etc, I still need to work on it, do you have any advice for playing this Barcelona-way against big-teams?

Nilton, I think my op reflects that we agree. One of the things I like about this tactic is that I'm not using a good passing team. I'm rubbing my hands with glee (not a fan of the show btw) to see how other managers can do with good passing teams. The tactic was built on the idea that I need to beat big teams playing an attacking W-W tactic.

Here are some of the stats of games I did well:

And another one where I didn't do so well: (the sit is not letting me post it so visit the link please)

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/7449/manutdvliverpoolstatsma.png

Unfortunately I cannot say that this is an honest reflection of how I do in big games, because so far this season, OP players were sent off in ALL the big games I played this season. And that certainly tipped the balance in my favor.

I also want to share some of the 'false 9' play the team creates:

In this pic we see #8 dropping deep to receive the ball, forcing CB #18 to come out of position to close him down. Suarez (#10) whose initial position was like #18's but on the left side, is now making a run to exploit the space...

Thanks for the crag (although I don't know if I've posted them correctly).

Nilton I've just had a look at your posts you are one of my heroes man. Very thankful you've posted here. What is the problem you face with bigger teams? I mean by the screen shots I've seen it seems an issue of balance between possession and cutting edge (also called the Rafa syndrome )

were your team may be considers passing the ball the goal rather than the mean to create chances. But let me know what the problem is exactly and I'm sure I'll be of help. I actually think if we work together we can make one hell of a tactic, you have the 500+ passing and I have the cuting edge.. we put them together and its 100% Barce in the attacking phase.

Sorry for double posting but I forgot to add the end for the false 9 play

#8 plays the ball for #10 (who was unmarked) in space. Suarez then leaves the two defenders trailing to score and give me the lead.

Keep dreaming.

That's what they said before the last game too. But dreams come true the way Barca is playing.

Keep dreaming.

Agreed.

I would like to recreate the look on Mourinho's face after that 5-0 result

Hey that still hurts

That's what they said before the last game too. But dreams come true the way Barca is playing.

A lot of football will be played between now and the rematch. Barca are amazing but they are not perfect so please stop with the 'dreams come true' stuff.

In fact stop thinking about RL so much and focus more on FM

Oh and motcha did you give the iniesta role a free role?

Motcha,

I've downloaded your tactic and I will see how it goes. I will be using it with Barca in my save which is at the start of the second season. I've been working on my own tactic and I just destroyed Vilarreal in the Super Cup 2nd leg 6-0 and Liverpool in the European Super Cup 4-1. I'll be interested to see how you've made your tactic work using 3MCs and 3STCs, as I'm using DM+2MCs and Wingers+Striker in my own. I'm thinking that it will take my players some time to adjust to the different formation and probably different instructions like tempo and such.

Aderow,

Real will be given another footballing lecture in case they didn't learn from the previous one. Actually, they have given them a few already in the last couple of seasons. Maybe they should start charging Real's players some fee for that. :cool:

to fully mirror the role Busquets often play, I think you need to use him on DM, he needs to drop much deeper, sweep up behind the other MC's and dictate play from the deep

to fully mirror the role Busquets often play, I think you need to use him on DM, he needs to drop much deeper, sweep up behind the other MC's and dictate play from the deep

He hasn't been doing that lately though. Have you noticed that? He still plays closer to the two center-backs though, so I would definitely classify him as DM rather than MCd.

The other roles that are hard to replicate are those of Pedro and Villa. I haven't found the best solution for them. If you look at Barca's games, when in attack these two are definitely playing as if they are the outer two of a three stickers formation. But in defense they track back and pressure is if they were playing as AML and AMR. Messi stays up top defensively, but drops deeper once Villa and Pedro push up in attack. So essentially Barca defends as 4-5-1 but in attack looks more like 2-3-2-1-2.

IMO, any FM tactic that tries to replicate Barca has to start with this formations: GK - DR, DRC, DLC, DL - DM, MRC, MLC - AMR, AML - STC. Then individual instructions need to be given so it transfororms into GK - DRC, DLC - WBR, DM, WBL - MRC, MLC - AMC - STRC, STLC.

I'll be interested to see how you've made your tactic work using 3MCs and 3STCs, as I'm using DM+2MCs and Wingers+Striker in my own. I'm thinking that it will take my players some time to adjust to the different formation and probably different instructions like tempo and such.

Since you are probably going to play with a high line, that should help minimize the space between the midfield 3 and the front 3. Plus you can control their positioning of the players by adjusting mentality, closing down etc.

Aderow,

Real will be given another footballing lecture in case they didn't learn from the previous one. Actually, they have given them a few already in the last couple of seasons. Maybe they should start charging Real's players some fee for that. :cool:

lol we shall see

3-0 up in 11 minutes.

well there is no way we can recreate the barca style in FM. No way.

Can you ask your Dani Alves to make 3 consecutive pass & moves with Messi between 4 players to finish at the ST position delivering the final pass to an unmarked Messi ?

No way, mate, no way.

Just one of the things I noticed is that there is a huge stress on players' initial positioning. This is one of the areas I disagree with based on a lot of trials, I think the most accurate assessment of a formation is the average position option you can find in analysis. In that screen you'll see that my MC is dropping below the other two MCs and the same with the SC. This game allows much more positional freedom than before (one of the reasons I think we can come close to Barce style).

An example I gave on another thread was trying to play with no full backs; 2-1-4-3. You would assume that the team now has no width defensively, but what happens is that the MR/L play exactly like a player in the FB position.

So just because you are putting a player in an MC position does not mean that he cannot be interpreted as a DMC in the match engine.

well there is no way we can recreate the barca style in FM. No way.

Can you ask your Dani Alves to make 3 consecutive pass & moves with Messi between 4 players to finish at the ST position delivering the final pass to an unmarked Messi ?

No way, mate, no way.

Just cuz you cant do it doesn't mean its not possible

There is no point in trying match every little thing that barca do

making a tactic that mimics barca's general style of play (aka high possession, fluid passing and movement, almost free scoring ) is something we can do.

Whats the harm in trying?

Motcha do you have your forwards swapping positions?

In that screen you'll see that my MC is dropping below the other two MCs and the same with the SC. This game allows much more positional freedom than before (one of the reasons I think we can come close to Barce style).

I've been doing the same thing in FM10.

An example I gave on another thread was trying to play with no full backs; 2-1-4-3. You would assume that the team now has no width defensively, but what happens is that the MR/L play exactly like a player in the FB position.

this is a massive ME problem or bug if you like, it will hapen no mather what kind of instructions that gets handed out, makes it impossible to play a flat 3-5-2 formation like its suposed to work, becouse the wide players always drop way to deep (making the formation look like a 5-3-2 in the ME, and never gives the wingers time to regain attacking positions, it would look exactly the same if you use a flat back 5...)

so that is taking things out of contex IMO

while I do agree that its possible to get the central MC to play deeper if a flat 3 is in use (this will also hapen even if he get handed more attacking instructions then the other two btw), but Im still of the opinion that the DMC spot mirror Busqutes behaviour much better then a deep MC role would after having tested both

Motcha - any opinions on the other Barca related formations doing the rounds in this forum?

Guardiola's 433

False 9

etc

Ahhh, finally a barca thread fro FM11....

Now that I am back, I will post my thoughts later on in the day.

And aderow, sorry for not replying to your pm(s), was really busy last few months

This season I think we all noticed something, and it's that Guardiola started the season not so well ( the goals scored ratio was low if you compare to the last two seasons ) , all until he switched up his formation a little.

Now, its obvious that messi plays as the lone striker in a false 9 role, but whats more interesting is how Xavi and Iniesta are operating this year.

They both start in the centre alongside busquets/mascherano, and once barca get the ball to the opposition's half, you should see the interesting thing that happens. Messi would drop very very deep into a position almost like that of an AMC and he would start playing short passes with Xavi and iniesta, then when they spot a gap in the defence, Pedro, Villa, Alves and one of Xavi or iniesta make dangerous runs into the box. This is evident as xavi and iniesta have recently found themselves in scoring positions, Which was missing from last season.

Now, I hate to say this, but it's really really really hard to play like barcelona in FM with the current M.E. The reason is that the way they attack and defend are contradictory in FM terms, which is very strange. We cant get the centre backs to pull wide, we also cant get the whole team to move around and creating space, which is limited thanks to the rigidity of positions in the ME.

I tried a few tests by putting the CBs in the sweeper position which is behind the fullback position, and in terms of keeping the ball, it worked a treat, but when the opposition had the ball, they tore us apart, as most of the time the players wouldn't go more central to cover the runs of strikers..

So now, i think we should start from where i left off, playing the CBs at the sweeper position behind the fullbacks, and start tinkering with them, then we move on to the DMC/MCd .

It has to be GK, DR, DRC, DLC, DL, DM, MRC, MLC, AMR, AML, STC

The fact that the DR bombs all the way forward needs to be reflected in his instructions and PPMs.

Villa very often plays almost off the left, but there is no PPM to say "Drifts out to Left".

Passing put all the way up and fluidity, closing down etc all the way up should provide enough of a Barca style tactic.

Good idea man, I will try this definitely, and trying i will be. Will give some screen shots. I am on 2nd match for Bologna, who appointed me after i got Dusseldorf FC promoted to Bundesliga. Signed 14 rejected stars into my team,the likes of; baptista, drenthe, lanzafame, cavenaghi, faubert, van dan borre.

Into my 3rd game, looks very nice. But i always like to change the tempo and time wasting for variation. It did improve, with Quick and Time wasting 1 click below Often, i can see more passing and even some one-two passes.... ended 1-0 vs Palermo.

Will share with you more, maybe after 10-12 games.

Have a gud day, mate.

I've got to disagree it doesn't have to be a 451 with advanced wingers at all. Precisely because villa and Pedro don't play as wingers but as strikers. Barcelona play very narrow with only the wing backs staying wide, therefore id argue in favour of the 433.

Just cuz you cant do it doesn't mean its not possible

There is no point in trying match every little thing that barca do

making a tactic that mimics barca's general style of play (aka high possession, fluid passing and movement, almost free scoring ) is something we can do.

Whats the harm in trying?

So is playing Arsenal, Dortmund, Lyon and so on. High possession and stuff isn't a Barca trademark (despite them being the best at it). The thread title is 'Barcelona Tactic'. And it's clearly not ^^, simply because the ME doesn't allow the way Barcelona is playing atm. That much creativity is not reachable, such as the 'Total Football' style has never been reached either in FM series.

This season I think we all noticed something, and it's that Guardiola started the season not so well ( the goals scored ratio was low if you compare to the last two seasons ) , all until he switched up his formation a little.

Now, its obvious that messi plays as the lone striker in a false 9 role, but whats more interesting is how Xavi and Iniesta are operating this year.

They both start in the centre alongside busquets/mascherano, and once barca get the ball to the opposition's half, you should see the interesting thing that happens. Messi would drop very very deep into a position almost like that of an AMC and he would start playing short passes with Xavi and iniesta, then when they spot a gap in the defence, Pedro, Villa, Alves and one of Xavi or iniesta make dangerous runs into the box. This is evident as xavi and iniesta have recently found themselves in scoring positions, Which was missing from last season.

Now, I hate to say this, but it's really really really hard to play like barcelona in FM with the current M.E. The reason is that the way they attack and defend are contradictory in FM terms, which is very strange. We cant get the centre backs to pull wide, we also cant get the whole team to move around and creating space, which is limited thanks to the rigidity of positions in the ME.

I tried a few tests by putting the CBs in the sweeper position which is behind the fullback position, and in terms of keeping the ball, it worked a treat, but when the opposition had the ball, they tore us apart, as most of the time the players wouldn't go more central to cover the runs of strikers..

So now, i think we should start from where i left off, playing the CBs at the sweeper position behind the fullbacks, and start tinkering with them, then we move on to the DMC/MCd .

Hey no problem batata no need to apologise.

Anyways you bring up some interesting points. Has anyone tried to giving the front 5 (Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Villa, Pedro) all free roles and complete creative freedom?

So is playing Arsenal, Dortmund, Lyon and so on. High possession and stuff isn't a Barca trademark (despite them being the best at it). The thread title is 'Barcelona Tactic'. And it's clearly not ^^, simply because the ME doesn't allow the way Barcelona is playing atm. That much creativity is not reachable, such as the 'Total Football' style has never been reached either in FM series.

I'm gonna be a tool and say that Arsenal, Dortmund, and Lyon all are trying to copy Barca lol

Honestly though, you can reach a level of creativity that is far beyond what most, maybe even all the other teams, are able to play at in FM.

Like I said before, be generous when giving out creative freedom. I mean if there is a team that can handle that its barca.

But the problem with creative freedom in FM is that a player with complete creative freedom will NOT act as a player IRL, which means that you can't just boost CF for all players and expect to see Barca style football... In order to get close WE as the managers have to control most of the players movement, passing, mentality on the pitch, etc... Five players with 100% CF might be a fun experiment, and it may even 'work' in terms of getting results, but it will not give you a 'Guardiola-true-to-life-tactic'.

Hey,

I have also been inspired by the way Barcelona play since the "5-0" and had many a debate at work about the style off play and how to replicate in FM. I am at work now so apologies for the shocking image I am about to post will post FM Screenies later but this is how I am going to try and approach things in game.

I have just finished a season @ Real Madrid trying to replicate Jose Mourinho counter attacking style of play and feel that I have managed to re-create this and will again post this in a seperate thread late. Anyway I digress see below image of how I intend to re-create Barce Style football....

Barcelona now set-up as a 4-3-3, they did this against Madrid, Rubin Kazan & Real Sociedad. The thing that I noted was the staggered line the forwards take (see below image from Zonal Marking)

That is why I have said the the Striker Right side is set as deep lying forward, and set to Hug Touchline so you have the winger aspect of play despite the fact he is not set as a "Right Winger"

Anyway, I will be putting this in to practice later on this evening when I finish work lol, but I welcome your thoughts at this stage.

Hey,

I have also been inspired by the way Barcelona play since the "5-0" and had many a debate at work about the style off play and how to replicate in FM. I am at work now so apologies for the shocking image I am about to post will post FM Screenies later but this is how I am going to try and approach things in game.

I have just finished a season @ Real Madrid trying to replicate Jose Mourinho counter attacking style of play and feel that I have managed to re-create this and will again post this in a seperate thread late. Anyway I digress see below image of how I intend to re-create Barce Style football....

Barcelona now set-up as a 4-3-3, they did this against Madrid, Rubin Kazan & Real Sociedad. The thing that I noted was the staggered line the forwards take (see below image from Zonal Marking)

That is why I have said the the Striker Right side is set as deep lying forward, and set to Hug Touchline so you have the winger aspect of play despite the fact he is not set as a "Right Winger"

Anyway, I will be putting this in to practice later on this evening when I finish work lol, but I welcome your thoughts at this stage.

I just tried sumting similar 2 that.

Xavi and Iniesta are Advanced Playmakers Support and Attack. I lowered Busquets' mentality. I lowered Messi's mentality and put him as a Complete Forward Support and Villa and Pedro down the two centre wings as advanced forwards who hug the touchline. Villa just got a hattrick!!! 4-1!!

Sorry haven't posted in a while but in regards to pressure, it does happen fellas but not as often as real life so may be there is a room for improvement. I scored 3 goals this season were my striker has won the opp goal keeper, and countless others when winning the ball from opp CB.

Also in the stastic my 3 forwards come 2nd,3rd and 4th in terms of tackles made, the problem is they don't win enough of them which affects the pressing game. I'll try to nurture a youth striker who is a good tackler in the future

Nice tactice. I'm using Arsenal by the way. I dominate possession and my midfielders Fabregas, Rosicky, Denilson are getting at least 50 passes each every game. The only problem is that my team can't score.. and my strikers have poor ratings. Anyone care to help? My strikers are Chamakh, van Persie, Walcott.

This is how I am getting on with my attempt at recreating Barcelona's style of football as per my previous post.

I know its not against a "BIG TEAM" and I will be doing more testing with it tonight to see how it plays against "BIGGER TEAMS" but so far I am please with what I am seeing in the ME and with the Analysis post match.

First thing I was pleased to see was although my base formation is like the one in my previous post 4-1-2-3, they are actually playing a 2-3-2-3 formation which is actually how they play see http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/oct/26/the-question-barcelona-reinventing-w-w

This was the first thing I checked and knowing I got this positioning correct I can now work on the finer details!

Below are the possession stats, over 62% and my aim is to get it nearer to 65-70% as it is in real life, so I think a slower tempo maybe but thus far happy with the initial findings now to fine tune it and test it over a longer time frame.

So far tough, although only friendlies

5 v 0 vs Barcelona Reserves

10 v 0 vs Reus (the match the screen shots are from)

Nice tactice. I'm using Arsenal by the way. I dominate possession and my midfielders Fabregas, Rosicky, Denilson are getting at least 50 passes each every game. The only problem is that my team can't score.. and my strikers have poor ratings. Anyone care to help? My strikers are Chamakh, van Persie, Walcott.

Stick van persie in the middle, Walcott to the left and Arshavin to the right. I'm assuming you were playing Chamack down the middle who isn't really cut out for a false 9

any OI ? match preperation? and the pitch size?

thanks, give it a try.

This tactic gives a wonderful style of football. I would much prefer to work at building a team around this type of tactic than use one which exploits the ME. I have only been messing around the demo with it for the time being so just wanted to know how this works with the latest patch

Thanks in advance

I think I will download the demo and see how some of this stuff works in FM11...

oh motcha are you gonna post any pics?

On latest patch - any reason why 'instructions' is disabled during match play so no 'shouts' can be selected?

Is it because the tactic was no created via the tactics editor?

On latest patch - any reason why 'instructions' is disabled during match play so no 'shouts' can be selected?

Is it because the tactic was no created via the tactics editor?

Yup, hit the nail on the head.

Motcha - across a season, how many goals are you scoring?

My tactic is very much swashbuckle football, scored 100+ in the last season but conceded 45 or so. It's not quite consistent enough just yet for a title push (I've flirted with the top, finished 4th and 3rd). I'm experimenting with your tactic and inter-changing of passes and the movement is fantastic.

Early days for me, but wanted to understand whether once a team 'grows' into the formation and tactic, does the team create more chances per game thus more goals?

At the moment, I wouldn't say I'm creating an abundance compared to my 'swashbuckle' tactic. Not that I'm comparing, just considering the amount of chances Barca create and score from per game. It's a generalisation I know but interested in stat progression over a season or two.

Motcha - across a season, how many goals are you scoring?

My tactic is very much swashbuckle football, scored 100+ in the last season but conceded 45 or so. It's not quite consistent enough just yet for a title push (I've flirted with the top, finished 4th and 3rd). I'm experimenting with your tactic and inter-changing of passes and the movement is fantastic.

Early days for me, but wanted to understand whether once a team 'grows' into the formation and tactic, does the team create more chances per game thus more goals?

At the moment, I wouldn't say I'm creating an abundance compared to my 'swashbuckle' tactic. Not that I'm comparing, just considering the amount of chances Barca create and score from per game. It's a generalisation I know but interested in stat progression over a season or two.

This is an important point you raise, my tactic (in the way presented now) is not in its attacking version. This is the standard one. To get them to be more attacking you will need to raise EACH PLAYER'S mentality by up to 4 notches (but you must raise the same amount for all players). I've scored 63 goals in 34 matches (conceded 18). This is not much but it is mainly because with Liverpool I don't have that many goal scorers. I'd like to see how it works with teams like Arsenal, City, Madrid and Barcelona.

This isn't just a tactic for me, it will be a philosophy for building a team and improving every season. Last season I scored 65 goals in the league, I've already scored 63 with 4 more games to go (actually I scored 71 in 36 but my game crashed).

Can anyone who tested this tactic share how they are doing.

ADEROW: I did post a few pics here, you can't see them? I've not posted pics before so let me know if you can't see them so I try to fix it.

I'm testing it. Started a season, only 12 games or so in, but will report back.

I will create a variant of the tactic and notch up the mentality of the players. Do I need to change anything else?

I'm testing it. Started a season, only 12 games or so in, but will report back.

I will create a variant of the tactic and notch up the mentality of the players. Do I need to change anything else?

No that is it, if you see the team struggling for possession on a regular basis (52% and so on) expand the width then allow the 3 MCs to run with the ball SOMETIMES. This will improve the link up to the front line. Who are you playing with? how is your team faring and what are the things that stand out (-vely and +vely) for you so far?

Interestingly, on standard, for the first batch of games I was claiming 70-85% of possession. Recently, dropping down to 52-54% and sometimes actually losing possession.

I'm Tottenham. I'm 3rd in the table after around 10 games with 2 games in hand which will place me top. Lost once in the league, 3-0 away to Newcastle which appears to have been a fluke. It's working very well, but lacks that extra push. Which is obviously because I have it set up as standard.

Was just going in to tell you leave it on standard, it seems that when you put players on attacking they lose their positional sense and willingness to track back.

I am going to experiment and see what happens when I drop mentality.